Slashdot Mirror
Book Review: Introduction To Cyber-Warfare: A Multidisciplinary Approach
benrothke writes Cyberwarfare is a controversial topic. At the 2014 Infosec World Conference, Marcus Ranum gave a talk on Cyberwar: Putting Civilian Infrastructure on the Front Lines, Again. Whether it was the topic or just Marcus being Marcus, about a third of the participants left within the first 15 minutes. They should have stayed, as Ranum, agree with him or not, provided some riveting insights on the topic. In Introduction to Cyber-Warfare: A Multidisciplinary Approach, authors Paulo Shakarian, Jana Shakarian and Andrew Ruef provide an excellent overview of the topic. The book takes a holistic, or as they call it multidisciplinary, approach. It looks at the information security aspect of cyberwarfare, as well the military, sociological and other aspects. Keep reading for the rest of Ben's review.
Introduction to Cyber-Warfare: A Multidisciplinary Approach
author
Paulo Shakarian, Jana Shakarian and Andrew Ruef
pages
336
publisher
Syngress
rating
9/10
reviewer
Ben Rothke
ISBN
978-0124078147
summary
Outstanding overview and guide to cyberwarfare
The book is divided into 3 parts and 13 densely packed and extremely well-researched and footnoted chapters. The book provides numerous case studies of the largest cyberwarfare events to date. Issues around China and their use of cyberwarfare constitute a part of the book. Chapter 7 details the Chinese cyber strategy and shows how the Chinese cyber doctrine and mindset is radically different from that of those in the west.
The book compares the board games of chess (a Western game) and Go (a Chinese game) and how the outcomes and strategies of the games are manifest in each doctrine.
The chapter also shows how the Chinese government outlawed hacking, while at the same time the military identified the best and most talented hackers in China, and integrated them into Chinese security firms, consulting organizations, academia and the military.
One of the more fascinating case studies details the cyber war against the corporate world from China. The book provides a number of examples and details the methodologies they used, in addition to providing evidence of how the Chinese were involved.
For an adversary, one of the means of getting information is via social networks. This is often used in parallel by those launching some sort of cyberwarfare attack. LinkedIn is one of the favorite tools for such an effort. The authors write of the dangers of transitive trust; where user A trusts user B, and user B trusts user C. Via a transitive trust, user A will then trust user C based simply on the fact that user B does. This was most manifest in the Robin Sage exercise. This was where Thomas Ryan created a fictitious information security professional names Robin Sage. He used her fake identity and profile to make friends with others in the information security world, both commercial, federal and military and he was able to fool even seasoned security professionals. Joan Goodchild wrote a good overview of the experiment here.
In chapter 10, the book details how Iraqi insurgents viewed Predator drones video feeds. Woody Allen said that eighty percent of success is just showing up. In this case, all the insurgents had to do was download the feed, as it was being transmitted unencrypted. Very little cyberwarfare required.
When the drone was being designed, the designers used security by obscurity in their decision not to encrypt the video feed. They felt that since the Predator video feeds were being transmitted on frequencies that were not publicly known, no access control, encryption or other security mechanisms would be needed.
The downside is that once the precise frequency was determined by the insurgency, in the case of the Predator drone, the Ku-band, the use of the SkyGrabber satellite internet downloader made it possible for them to effortless view the video feeds.
The only negative about the book is a minor one. It has over 100 pictures and illustrations. Each one states: for the color version of this figure, the reader is referred to the online version of the book. Having that after every picture is a bit annoying. Also, the book never says where you can find the online version.
How good is this book? The reality is that this book should indeed be read by everyone in Washington, as they are making decisions on the topic, without truly understanding it.
For most readers, this will be the book that tells them everyone they need to know that their congressman should know. Most people will never be involved with any sort of warfare, and most corporate information security professional will not get involved with cyberwarfare. Nonetheless, Introduction to Cyber-Warfare: A Multidisciplinary Approach is a fascinating read about a most important subject.
Reviewed by Ben Rothke
You can purchase Introduction to Cyber-Warfare: A Multidisciplinary Approach from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews (sci-fi included) -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page. If you'd like to see what books we have available for review from our library please let us know.
The book compares the board games of chess (a Western game) and Go (a Chinese game) and how the outcomes and strategies of the games are manifest in each doctrine.
The chapter also shows how the Chinese government outlawed hacking, while at the same time the military identified the best and most talented hackers in China, and integrated them into Chinese security firms, consulting organizations, academia and the military.
One of the more fascinating case studies details the cyber war against the corporate world from China. The book provides a number of examples and details the methodologies they used, in addition to providing evidence of how the Chinese were involved.
For an adversary, one of the means of getting information is via social networks. This is often used in parallel by those launching some sort of cyberwarfare attack. LinkedIn is one of the favorite tools for such an effort. The authors write of the dangers of transitive trust; where user A trusts user B, and user B trusts user C. Via a transitive trust, user A will then trust user C based simply on the fact that user B does. This was most manifest in the Robin Sage exercise. This was where Thomas Ryan created a fictitious information security professional names Robin Sage. He used her fake identity and profile to make friends with others in the information security world, both commercial, federal and military and he was able to fool even seasoned security professionals. Joan Goodchild wrote a good overview of the experiment here.
In chapter 10, the book details how Iraqi insurgents viewed Predator drones video feeds. Woody Allen said that eighty percent of success is just showing up. In this case, all the insurgents had to do was download the feed, as it was being transmitted unencrypted. Very little cyberwarfare required.
When the drone was being designed, the designers used security by obscurity in their decision not to encrypt the video feed. They felt that since the Predator video feeds were being transmitted on frequencies that were not publicly known, no access control, encryption or other security mechanisms would be needed.
The downside is that once the precise frequency was determined by the insurgency, in the case of the Predator drone, the Ku-band, the use of the SkyGrabber satellite internet downloader made it possible for them to effortless view the video feeds.
The only negative about the book is a minor one. It has over 100 pictures and illustrations. Each one states: for the color version of this figure, the reader is referred to the online version of the book. Having that after every picture is a bit annoying. Also, the book never says where you can find the online version.
How good is this book? The reality is that this book should indeed be read by everyone in Washington, as they are making decisions on the topic, without truly understanding it.
For most readers, this will be the book that tells them everyone they need to know that their congressman should know. Most people will never be involved with any sort of warfare, and most corporate information security professional will not get involved with cyberwarfare. Nonetheless, Introduction to Cyber-Warfare: A Multidisciplinary Approach is a fascinating read about a most important subject.
Reviewed by Ben Rothke
You can purchase Introduction to Cyber-Warfare: A Multidisciplinary Approach from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews (sci-fi included) -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page. If you'd like to see what books we have available for review from our library please let us know.
> it possible for them to effortless view the video feeds. effortlessly* view the video feeds
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
If you're a _real_ CyberCombatant, locating the online version should be a dawdle.
You're looking for quotes? See my journal.
the next one is, too.
If the book is as badly written as this review, it's not worth it.
"They felt that since the Predator video feeds were being transmitted on frequencies that were not publicly known, no access control, encryption or other security mechanisms would be needed. " -- I am sure it wasn't that simple. As soon as you say 'encryption' in the defense world you open a can of worms that can set your project back as much as 2 years. These aren't technical set backs, but rather paperwork and process set backs. They were probably told by their government program manager to not put 'encryption' in their response because they probably didn't want to deal with the additional process burden. You can't do anything in the defense contracting world such as adding a feature like encryption without the government's program manager signing off on it and often find yourself constrained by law from implementing the best possible solution.
because not everyone patches the stuff on the same day, some some people got crap like reboot to worry about. So expect the order to be -15 to -20 days patch for 0 day exploits
The engineers who designed the Predator were not idiots, adopting Security through Obscurity. The feeds were not encrypted for at least two reasons: The Predator is supposed to be able to go at a moment's notice, and having to wait around to be keyed for the mission at hand as required by NSA, defeats the purpose. I've heard the expression "80% of my intelligence needs that I can have NOW, can share it with coalitions, and don't need a security officer and a safe to transport it around the battlefield is a dream come true..." In any case, the imagery doesn't tell anyone anything they don't already know, and has a quick "half-life" meaning it rapidly becomes irrelevant. It's just not worth encrypting. Not saying that we don't do stupid things, just that not encrypting the feed was not one of them.
Thanks to this part:
Wrong.
First, the Predator's video feed was not encrypted because encryption software and keys are classified. As a result, sharing those keys with coalition forces requires a mountain of paperwork. And sharing with one country doesn't mean you can share with another, leading to even more approvals.
Second and more importantly, encrypting the feeds also requires frequently updating security keys for soldiers in the middle of a war zone. That's not a very good idea, since soldiers can be cut off, and encryption gear can be captured.
Finally, encryption is of little value for the information in the data feed - the enemy forces are well aware of where they are, and will learn very shortly that they were being targeted.